We had the pleasure of hosting the Two MotoKiwis for the last couple of days on Salt Spring, and since they were heading down to Bellingham to pick up one of their bikes we decided to depart together on the 6:15am ferry. Ouch!

Maybe if we stare at the tyre long enough the bead will break on its own.... (Andi aka TwoMotoKiwi & Alberto)

Andi working on his trusted (?) DR650

Andi and Ellen take Alberto's F8GS and Alberto takes Naomi's bike for a ride around Salt Spring Island
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The morning started off quite warm, usually those early morning rides to ferries are very brisk and wake you up but I had all my vents open and was only wearing my 150 Icebreaker. Quite unusual. Our biker gang made it to the ferry without drama and we passed the time of the multi island stop ferry by sharing stories from our travels. The Two Moto Kiwis are great company. Once we got off the ferry we parted ways.

Naomi, Ellen and Andi on the ferry to Vancouver

A common sight: Naomi and her maps

It was great to spend time with TwoMotoKiwis!
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Traffic was thick and the heat of the day was beating down on us. Over two hours later we finally found ourselves sailing along Hwy 1 towards Hope. It was nice to be moving at a decent speed because the air was keeping us sort of cool. We were heading towards Osoyoos so we knew this would be the coldest part of the day. Oh boy, soak it up.

When we turned off onto Hwy 3 we kept things reasonable since we knew the cops would be out. I had not anticipated how hardcore their presence would be though. We saw 13 police cars patrolling or set up with radar guns before the day was through, I am also happy to report that we were going the speed limit so we didn't find ourselves on the wrong end of a speeding ticket.

We stopped in Manning Park at a nice little rest stop for our lunch time meal/snack. Shortly after hitting the road again we saw a huge black bear just chilling at the side of the highway. It was completely unexpected. The ride was fun, I really enjoy parts of that road, but our enthusiasm was being restricted by all the police keeping people in check. Just a couple more kph would have been nice, and maybe a few less campers.

Lunch break @ Manning Park :dg
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As expected the temperature really started to heat up by the time we reached Princeton, so after filling up with gas we went to DQ to split a blizzard. It kept getting hotter, so we kept moving as much as we could. No time for pictures today. We were happy when we spotted the turnoff for the Nighthawk Border. The turn off also marked the start of our adventure since this was new territory. We were both surprised at how close the border actually was, in no time we had reached the crossing, so soon that it took me by surprise.

The border crossing consisted of the usual shenanigans: where are you going? What are your jobs? How much money do you have? There was kind of an awkward moment when one of the officers asked me what bills I had, and then specifically asked how many 1s I had. Does the average person really know these things? He was trying to figure out if we had the correct change to pay for Alberto's entry, but there was a moment there where I was kinda confused. As it turned out the border officer rode a 1200GS and gave us some tips for our ride. So it was all good. One of the more friendly, though still serious, border officials we have encountered at the US border.

By the time we left the border we were both sweating and ready to call it a day. We programmed the GPS to take us to Patrol Lake but when we got there it was crazy busy. Okay, route to next nearest campground in the GPS. It ended up being a dead end/private property. Next. It turned out to be worth the wait because we found a really nice campground that was empty. It was totally premium. Third time is a charm. The temperature was perfect and we enjoyed a nice leisurely evening chilling around the picnic table. It was even relatively bug free.

Looking for a campground can be a hard task when the bike finds a bed of pine needles to rest on

Our first night in WA was perfect. It didn't get very cold overnight, there was virtually no bugs, and the temperature in the morning was not too cold, not too warm but just right. Life is definitely good. So let's keep the good times rolling.

The start of a great day of riding:

Our source of fresh water

Our new favourite water filtering system: Geigerrig
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After some interesting oatmeal from Peru for breakfast - with Maca - we broke camp and programmed our new Garmin with the WABDR route. We knew we could have skipped the first two waypoints of the trip by continuing on the road we camped on but we wanted to follow the route as much as possible. You know, see the sights.

It started off with a steepish climb into the hills with a nice view of the valley. It was worth starting at the beginning, the road was lots of fun. Sadly we got lost, how is this possible? When Garmin decided to route us back past the campground we stayed at the previous night. We'd been driving for over an hour and found ourselves right where we started haha. The map came to the rescue thankfully and I quickly put Garmin back in its place. That little detour didn't really cost us much time, and it wouldn't be normal if we didn't get lost at least once

The start of the dirt = let the fun times begin

The view of the valley

Still going up!

Leaving the pavement down below

Naomi taking care of business
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The riding is a nice mix of standard dirt roads with some sections being quite challenging. At one point I bailed in a rocky section. That was silly, I think I stalled it. For the most part though it was really fun, both the easier and harder bits. There was also more paved sections than we were expecting. A good mix all across the board.

We stopped at a nice little, for lack of a better word, rest stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere north of Conconully to have our lunch. Still no bugs; this is nice. We have really perfected our bike trip snacks and meals. We don't even need to stop at grocery stores anymore, which is kind of a hassle. We only stop for gas now and the rest of the time is spent off the grid.

From the saddle

Awesome riding

Following Naomi

The WABDR

Green hills

A shy Gringa

Must have been a nasty forest fire that killed these trees

Burnt forest

Hi everyone!

Unique scenery

Moving on

Rocky section

Naomi not impressed with me taking photos of her narcoleptic F8GS :ddog

Yeah... it was a bit rocky
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Conconully is the end of the first section but it was still early in the day and all the campgrounds in the area were pretty busy so we decided to push on. We prefer things a bit less crowded. We did fill up our tanks with gas though before leaving. It was pretty hot too so we wanted to keep pressing on to gain some elevation again.

Again the riding was superb. There was this one section in particular that had a lot of dust, it was really weird. It looked like sand but didn't really kick the front tire around. It made it difficult for me, who follows Alberto and the Garmin, to see. I had to drop waaaaay back. We popped out of the woods on a narrow random paved road. The road seemed like it was from nowhere and going nowhere, the bushes were encroaching on the road and it seemed pretty neglected. At this point in the day Garmin decided to seek out some adventure again and led us on some rarely used dead end roads. And here I thought having a dedicated map and GPS route would make us immune to getting lost. I was wrong. I guess it was fun, and there was a nice view up at the deadend.

Snow capped mountains starting show in the distance

A close up

Naomi waiting for me to finish taking photos

Deep blue skies!

The road ahead

Green panoramas

WABDR = good stuff

Naomi on the saddle

Quick lunch break

The Garminio (Garmin) detour: a few dead-end roads :huh

On dirt, Naomi follows me (to dead ends and sketchy roads )

A bit LOST

Hard to tell on the pic but I almost went down hard there (front tyre clipped a large rock)
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We decided to finish the day at Foggy Dew National Forest Campground. It was getting pretty hot, topping out at 34.5 degrees C, and we were both getting a bit tired. It also didn't really seem like we had a lot of options. We could see a nice looking river at the side of the road, and it was making us fantasize about taking a dip so we found a campground.

We scored a pretty sweet campsite and then hit the creek for a dip. It was FREEZING and gave my feet brain freeze. I didn't last long in the water but it was exactly what I needed to bring my core temperature back to something normal.

Near the end of day 2

There goes Naomi

Yeah.. this is what I do for fun

Our camping spot for the night

FREEZING water

Naomi's turn... hahaha

Did some laundry (with biodegradable detergent )

Naomi writes up the events of the day for this RR

The perfect tunes at the end of a great day of riding and beautiful scenery

Alberto and Naomi I think every riding pair has a navigator and photographer. I am the one who likes to stop and take pics while Cheryl always gives me that look if I take too long. Cheryl is the navigator and I give her looks when we get lost or not to the place we were supposed to be.....love your RR and all your pics. I am still trying to get Cheryl to come out for BC ride. If she doesn't I might just go solo. I will enjoy this RR as we hope to get out and do the WABDR one day.

Alberto and Naomi I think every riding pair has a navigator and photographer. I am the one who likes to stop and take pics while Cheryl always gives me that look if I take too long. Cheryl is the navigator and I give her looks when we get lost or not to the place we were supposed to be.....love your RR and all your pics. I am still trying to get Cheryl to come out for BC ride. If she doesn't I might just go solo. I will enjoy this RR as we hope to get out and do the WABDR one day.

Click to expand...

I enjoyed reading that. So true, the roles. I enjoy the picture breaks because it gives me time to look at my precious maps. heehee

Another fantastic night spent camping in Washington State, dare I say perfect conditions. Our campsite was nicely shaded by some large trees, but from the small sections that were in sunlight we could tell it was going to be warm again today. We decided to take a proactive approach today so Alberto soaked his shirt in the creek before we left. We also soaked our Umus.

We quickly rejoined the WABRD and headed up into the hills. The morning consisted of mostly forest riding, and to be honest wasn't very enjoyable. It was a bit too technical for my taste. It wasn't super hard, but it was challenging 100% of the time and it took all my concentration. I couldn't really relax at all to just enjoy the ride and scenery. I'd prefer a 60:40 ratio instead.

I know it's getting old but: another sunny & beautiful day!

And the view
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I had a disagreement with a rut and bailed badly. My bike landed on my foot and I was pinned in the middle of the road. Thankfully the G9s allowed me to yell at Alberto that I had fallen and that my bike was lying on my foot. I completely lost the back end and the rear tire came around and the bike fell over. I didn't even really have a chance to react because before I knew it I was lying on the ground. I escaped injury free, to my surprise. A big thanks to my Klim jacket and my Sidi boots no doubt. The fall kind of made me a little more hesitant throughout the rest of the morning.

Snapshots from a video Alberto made of the incident:

'a cloud of dust, the bike is down, case is off but... where is Naomi!

There she is!

Bike was resting on her foot: OUCH!

In a bit of pain

Fortunately, the SIDI Adventure boots did their job of protecting the foot/ankle
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The road surface ranged from sandy, to rocky, to rutted, to gravel. It wasn't really too bad, but it was consistent and never let off. We met 3 other dirt bikes coming the opposite direction at the worst possible time. It was a corner and a very rocky section. To the right was a sheer cliff and the right track had more rocks so I was sticking to the left, which was more or less clear. Unfortunately the 3 dirt bikers appeared from nowhere and I was having a hard time wrestling my bike through the rocks and into the right part of the road as I could barely get a tip toe down. I must have looked like a complete noob. It was very awkward but we survived.

More interesting forest

That's where we're going

Nice one!

Lively colours

The WABDR

and zoomed in

Mi Gringa bella

Down below is Chelan

It was getting hotter and hotter on our way down to Chelan

Naomi not enjoying the road surface too much

There she goes

More wonderful vistas (find Naomi)

Almost there!
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As I said the morning was a bit stressful so when we hit the pavement north of Chelan I was quite happy. The city of Chelan took us by surprise, we even started calling it the Kelowna of WA. Really fancy houses along the lake, and lots of boats out on the water. Despite the heat I think Alberto is plotting a strategy to relocate there, he liked what he saw: pretty girls, nice houses, amazing lake... It was also Alberto's birthday today so we stopped for a fancy lunch at Safeway haha. Hey there was AC!

Chelan: the Kelowna of USA

Some of Chelan's 'humble' casas :eek1

Lunch time! and Naomi's favourite chicken strips: SAFEWAYs!

My bday meal! ... looks like a child's foot :huh

Chelan's lake looked SO INVITING!

When I get 'this look' it's time to stop taking photos and get moving
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After lunch we followed the gps around the other side of the lake and then back on the dirt. The temperature got a little out of hand and we were happy to be gaining some elevation back on the dirt roads. I enjoyed the riding in the second part of the day much more. The road required less attention and the scenery was better. There was plenty to enjoy.

Back to the mountains

Forest fire in the distance

Leaving Chelan behind

Seeking shade

Yet another 'photo stop'

Wonderful views all around

Zoom zoom

I like this one!

Find Naomi... again

We'll be on that road in 35 minutes

Naomi liked this section more than the morning one, you can see why

Part of the road heading down

37C for US Canadians (and Peruvians) is HOT! (99F) - Note to self: need to do an oil change after the WABDR
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The heat of the day was getting to me though. My eyes hurt from all the hot air blowing at my face and I was feeling very fatigued. It was hard to concentrate and maneuver the bike. I was trying to stay hydrated but I eventually ran out of water. I've never been so happy to see a campground. We barely brought the bikes to a stop before we were stripping off our gear and running into the river. What a glorious feeling.

After feeling human again we set up camp and made some dinner. Another great campsite!

Got to say those pictures of the two of you in the river look very refreshing after a hot days riding. Wow what a great campsite! Lara looks as if the Cold water had taken her breath away and Alberto looks like he's just happy cooling to his core. You guys know how to pick the weather.